Blog Hop Extravaganza with Westcott and The Bloom Girls!

Jamie Dougherty has been in the crafting industry for the past ten years and has had her first signature collection produced with Prima Marketing Inc, called the Bloom Collection. Her collection stemmed off of her Fine art pieces which have been lovingly dubbed "Bloom Girls". Jamie's Bloom Girls have become a signature of her's and she teaches Bloom Girl workshops internationally. 

Blog Hop Extravaganza with Westcott and The Bloom Girls!

We are SO excited to present you a STRONG and BLOOMING collaboration between the Bloom Girl line by Jamie Dougherty and Westcott! All the designers have been playing with amazing products from Westcott and we were thrilled to base our projects on the Breast Cancer Awareness campaign that is always held during October.

To celebrate this awesome opportunity, both Jamie and Westcott are doing giveaways* to one lucky winner. Nice, right?! To enter the giveaways, you must comment on each blog listed below and make sure to thank our dear Jamie on the Bloom Girls Creative group on Facebook and Westcott on their Facebook page. You can find their products HERE on the Prima website and HERE on the Westcott one.

See More from Bloom Girls & Enter to Win....

Have a sneak at the Design team's beautiful projects, then hop around to see their finished projects. 

*The Westcott giveaway is open to US residents only from Oct. 17th 2014 10am PT to Oct. 20th 2014 12am PT. The Bloom Girl giveaway is open worldwide from Oct. 17th 2014 10am PT to Oct. 20th 2014 12am PT.

Ten Totally Random Tips for Teachers

Vicki Davis is the author of The CoolCat Teacher.  She's also written two books and hosts her own radio show, in addition to her full time teaching career.  Her vision is to help you teach with better results, lead with a positive impact and live with greater purpose.  We're thrilled to share her post.

There are some little things I have and do that make life a little easier.  Just thought I’d share some.

1) Keep a Snack Shelf 
I have a shelf in my cabinet with my favorite drinks (Fuze and Cranergy Drinks – which taste fine at room temp) and some healthy snacks like almonds.  When I’m having a rough time, I just go to the shelf and am not tempted to binge on candy bars in the machine. I restock this twice a month!

2) Use Sandpaper to Sharpen Scissors
We do so many creative things that I end up with dull, sticky scissors – I keep a large piece of sandpaper and just cut the sandpaper a few times and it sharpens the scissors. It works on a papercutter too.

3) Keep a Paper Towel Tube of Power
OK, so you have to carry things around all the time. When I am inundated with those plastic bags from the grocery store and get to the end of a paper towel roll, I take the cardboard roll and jam it full of plastic bags and take it to school and put in a drawer.  I never know when I’ll use these but they come in handy.

Read the rest of the tips...

The Most Modern Of Back-To-School Supplies: These

TeachThought, LLC is a progressive learning brand dedicated to supporting educators in evolving learning for a 21st century audience. We're glad to share one of their stories.

/sarcasm

Just as learning is changing, Back-to-School supplies are changing in tandem.

While the classroom above models much of the very latest in edu-thought, from the columns of desks to the pencil and paper exam, the perfect void of any student work, inspiring visuals, or learning tools on the walls to the lack of any mobile learning devices, all of which promote the kind of rigor and innovation great nations are founded on, the most avante garde example of them all might just be the anti-cheating hats shown above.

Affordable and biodegradable tools that both reduce in-exam peer-to-peer tutoring while also bolstering confidence and concentration considerably, the anti-cheating hats are the most modern of tools needed to complete the transformation of your classroom into a beacon of hope of 21st century learning.

/sarcasm

Read More from TeachThought, LLC 

Image courtesy bangkokpost.com

How Sharp ARE Westcott’s Scissors? A CHA Story…

Jennifer Priest is a mixed media artist who writes about the craft business, scrapbooking and, in this case, Westcott Scissor. We're glad to share her story.

If you’ve ever purchased and worked with a high quality knife, you know what “sharp” is. Slicing through tomatoes like butter and cutting with little to no effort. That’s why chefs and foodies get their knives sharpened regularly. And if you’ve sliced your finger by accident with said knife, then you know what that feels like – nothing.

Jamie Dougherty and I were involved in a Designer Challenge with Charity Wings in which we were given 8 minutes to create a project with Westcott Scissors, May Arts Ribbon, FloralCraft Foam, DecoArt Paint, Scrapbook Adhesives’ Keepsake Pockets, Rowlux Illusion Film, and a few other goodies.

We were rushing and laughing and crafting like mad and I left the scissor sitting OPEN on the table. I rushed to grab the and didn't feel a thing. And then there was blood all over the place. I had sliced my fingers like a tomato! I got some fist aid, used some of the bandaids from the first aid pack in my project and Jamie and I tied for first place :) The whole thing happened LIVE online via Charity Wings' livestreaming LIVE for CHA event. We just rolled with it!

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